The method of making a rose will give a good idea of the manufacture in general. First of all, the petals are cut out from the finest and most beautiful cambric. The pattern-shapes must be of different sizes, because, in the same rose, the petals are never equal; a good assortment of patterns enables the artist the better to imitate the variety of nature. When the petals are thus prepared, they have to be dyed in a bath of carmine in alkaline water. For this purpose, they are held separately by means of pincers, and dipped first in the bath, and then into pure water, to give them that delicacy of tint which is characteristic of the rose. But as the color of the petal usually deepens towards the centre, a tint is there laid on with the pencil, while a drop of water is laid on the point of insertion of the petal, to make the color there fade off, as it does in nature, to white. If the right tint is not given at first, the processes are repeated; any slight imperfection, such as is seen in the petals of most living flowers, being also accurately imitated with the pencil. The taffeta employed in making leaves is dyed of the proper green in the piece before cutting out. It is then stretched out to dry, and afterwards further prepared with gum-arabic on one side, to represent the glossy upper surface of leaves, and with starch on the other, to give the velvety appearance of the under side. This preparation, colored to suit the exact shade to be given to the leaf, must be just of the proper consistence, making the leaf neither too stiff nor too limp, while it gives the proper kind of under surface. Where the leaf requires a marked degree of this velvet texture, it is given by the nap of cloth reduced to fine powder, and properly tinted. A little gum is lightly passed over the surface, and when partly dry, this powder is dusted over it, the superfluous portion being shaken off. These preparations having been completed, it yet remains to give to the leaves, after they are cut out, the appearance of nature, by representing the veins and indentations which they always exhibit. For this purpose various gauffering-tools are made use of.